


All I gave was everything

by a_verysmallviolet



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Gen, Night Terrors, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-06
Updated: 2014-09-06
Packaged: 2018-02-16 08:10:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2262258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_verysmallviolet/pseuds/a_verysmallviolet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is nightfall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All I gave was everything

This is nightfall.

With a sigh, Korra nestles into bed. Cold air blows across her shoulders, and she shivers, drawing the blanket up to her chin. Through the drowsiness of nearing sleep she can smell incense, faint and aromatic, and hear a temple bell pealing in the distance. The cotton sheets are fine beneath her fingertips as she closes her eyes.

Her nose twitches. She can smell earth and damp rock.

No, something deep within her whispers, but she can smell it still, she opens her eyes and sees

Rock and fresh water, the sour tang of metal in the air, thousands of years pressing down on her head, grief wrenching through her like a blade –

(Not this, no…)

Dust and leather, dry summer heat. She cannot move, she cannot breathe, the tall figure looms above her; there is nothing within her, no call of flame or earth or water, only a scream that rises through – 

(No, no…)

Cold, deepest cold. Pain! Lancing pain and a screaming emptiness, Raava is gone, Raava is _gone_ …

This is home, she screams at herself. Wake up, this is not real, this is – 

This is an eye (glimpsed through a mask) this is an eye (so like her father’s) this is an eye with a scar slashing through – 

This is a voice (that growls, rumbles) this is a voice (light, soft, a kinsman’s voice) this is a voice this is ten thousand voices all speaking of ending the last Avatar ( _I’m saving you for last_ , a mask whispers in her ear) of death of weakness of ten thousand years of darkness because you couldn’t save Raava you couldn’t save your father you were weak and so you failed what are you if you are not the Avatar you are useless you are unneeded you are weak weak weak _but you’ll get your duel_ \- 

_and I will destroy you_

“NO!”

Incense and a temple bell. Cotton beneath her shaking fingertips. Here. Safety. Home. But Korra trembles still, as though trapped in the deepest cold.

This is nightfall.

This is why she’s afraid to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from Rise Against's "Survivor Guilt."


End file.
